Social networks link people that share common interests and habits. The rapid growth of the Internet has facilitated the ability of social networks to connect people all across the world. Entities such as individuals, groups, and organizations now use social networks to share ideas, collaborate on projects, find job opportunities, and establish personal relationships, among other things.
An entity may become a part of a social network by providing information about itself to others already in a network. For instance, through many Internet networking sites, an individual is linked to a list of friends based on various factors, including a past relationship, a shared interest, a similar job, a similar age, etc.
As social networks have become more pervasive, the amount of data describing members of any given network has ballooned. However, adequate techniques for analyzing this data to provide information about the members of the network have yet to be developed.